Apparatus for making continuous cigarette rods



March 26, 1968 D. w. MOLINS ET AL 3,374,795

APPARATUS FOR MAKING CONTINUOUS CIGARETTE RODS Filed July 27, 1965 INVENTORS United. States Patent ()fiice 3,374,795 Patented Mar. 26, 1968 3,374,795 APPARATUS FOR MAKING CONTINUOUS CIGARETTE RODS Desmond Walter Molins, Deptford, London, England, and Francis Auguste Maurice Labb, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, assignors to The Molins Organisation Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Filed July 27, 1965, Ser. No. 475,113 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Sept. 11, 1964, 37,375/ 64 2 Claims. (Cl. 131-21) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In a continuous rod cigarette making machine, shorts are removed from the supply of tobacco in the hopper and are fed into a reservoir, from which they are discharged at a controlled rate into an air stream which carries tobacco for forming a tobacco filler. Control of the rate of discharge of shorts from the reservoir is effected by a detector which detects the quantity of shorts in the reservoir.

This invention concerns improvements in or relating to apparatus for making continuous cigarette rods in the manufacture of cigarettes.

Cigarettes are normally manufactured on continuous rod cigarette making machines in which a continuous tobacco filler is produced and a continuous Wrapper web is folded around the filler and has its edges sealed together to form a continuous cigarette rod from which individual cigarettes are severed.

The cut tobacco which is used in the manufacture of cigarettes normally consists of a number of different types of tobacco particles, and in particular, of long lengths of tobacco lamina and shorter shreds which are commonly referred to as shorts and which will be referred to as such in this specification.

The shorts in the cut tobacco which is fed in a continuous rod cigarette making machine are not normally homogeneously distributed through the tobacco but tend to be concentrated more in some places than others. If this random concentration of shorts is carried through from the feeding means in the cigarette making machine to the tobacco filler, this can result in undesirable variations in the weights of the cigarettes produced.

In United States application Ser. No. 622,875 there is disclosed a method and apparatus of producing a continuous tobacco filler in which shorts are continuously removed from the cut tobacco to produce a flow of shorts, and the fiow of shorts is regulated to reduce variations in the rate of flow, and the regulated flow of shorts is then fed into the tobacco at a position downstream of where the shorts were removed. In the above mentioned application the shorts are fed into a reservoir having a small gap at its lower end through which the shorts can fall, the rate of flow of the shorts increasing as the height of the stock of shorts in the reservoir increases and vice versa.

According to the present invention there is provided feed of the shorts from the reservoir by the feeding means responsively to the operation of the said detecting means, so that when an increase in the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir is detected by the detecting means the rate of operation of the feeding means is correspondingly increased, and when a decrease in the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir is detected by the detecting means the rate of operation of the feeding means is correspondingly decreased.

In some continuous rod cigarette making machines a tobacco filler stream is produced which contains more tobacco per unit length than is required in the final cigarette rod, and a trimming device operates to remove the excess tobacco and thereby to produce a tobacco filler containing the amount of tobacco per unit length required in the cigarette rod. The excess tobacco removed by trimming is often returned to the hopper of the cigarette making machine to be fed again into the filler stream. It is desirable that insofar as is possible shorts should not be removed by trimming and returned to the hopper because the carding and picking operations which normally occur in the hopper can lead to undesirable breakage of the shorts. Accordingly, in applying the present invention to a machine in which a tobacco filler stream containing more tobacco than that required in the final cigarette rod is formed and the excess tobacco is removed by a trimming device it is preferable that the shorts should be fed from the reservoir in such a way that they occupy that part of the tobacco filler stream which will remain in the tobacco filler after the trimming operation. For this purpose the means for feeding the shorts from the reservoir may be arranged so as to feed the shorts into a desired part of the tobacco flow such that the shorts become concentrated in a desired part of the tobacco filler.

Apparatus in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawingwhich is a transverse section through part of a continuous rod cigarette making machine.

Referring to the drawing a carded drum 10, which rotates in the direction shown by the arrow, receives cut tobacco in bulk on the upper part of its surface. A rotating carded refuser drum (not shown) cooperates with the drum 10 so that a carpet of the cut tobacco is conveyed by the drum 10 to a picker roller 11, rotating in the direction shown by the/arrow, which removes the carpet from the drum and projects the tobacco across a guide plate 12 as a flow of substantially separated particles. Above the guide plate 12 and beyond the picker roller 11 as considered in the direction of the flow of tobacco is a speed control roller 13 which rotates in the direction shown by the arrow and whose operation is more fully described in United States application Ser. No. 264,952 now abandoned. The speed control roller 13 throws the tobaccoparticles into the gap between a member 14 provided with passages 15 and a perforated suction roller 16 which rotates about two fixed shaped guide members 17 and 18 in the direction shown by the arrow. A duct 19 extends upwards from the suction roller 16 to an air pervious conveyor band (not shown) which runs across the top of the duct 19, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, similar to that shown on the second sheet of drawings in US. application Ser. No. 622,875. Above the air pervious conveyor band there is provided a suction chamber which draws air up the duct 19. This duct is formed by closely spaced side walls 20 and 21 which have a substantial dimension in the direction of travel of the air pervious conveyor band, and by end walls (not shown). The duct thus also has a substantial dimension in the direction of travel of the air pervious conveyor band, which dimension is the 3 same as the width of the carded drum 10, the picker roller 11 and the suction roller 16.

The suction chamber above the air pervious conveyor band produces a high speed air flow up the duct 19 which impels the tobacco thrown by the speed control roller 13 through the duct and on to the air pervious conveyor band on which it forms a tobacco filler stream. The carded drum with its associated refuser drum thus operate to meter tobacco from the bulk supply and a continuous flow of tobacco is produced from which a tobacco filler stream is formed on the air pervious conveyor band.

In travelling over the member 14 heavier particles of tobacco are not deflected by the air stream up the duct 19 but travel past the member 14 into a space formed between walls 22 and 23 and at the bottom of the space there is provided a rotating recessed roller 24 and a cooperating rotating rubber covered roller 25. These two rollers feed the heavier particles of tobacco into a duct 26 which is formed between lower side walls 27 and 28 having apertures 28a to admit air, and upper curved side walls 29 and 30. An airstream is drawn up the duct 26 and carries away lighter particles of tobacco which may have adhered to the heavier particles delivered into the duct 26 so that these lighter particles are carried by the airstream into the duct 19 to join the main flow of tobacco which travels round the suction roller 16. The heavier tobacco particles fall down the duct 26 on to a rotatable recessed member 31 past which they are delivered into a pipe 32 from which they can be removed. The duct 26 extends in Width, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, the same distance as the duct 19.

The apparatus so far described is similar to that described more fully in United States application Ser. No. 292,604, now abandoned.

To the right of the carded drum 10 as viewed in the drawing is a plate 33 of the same width as the drum. The plate is curved as shown and is spaced from the drum 10 to form a container in which the bulk of tobacco is car.-

ried. The plate 33 has a small downward extension 34 and is positioned in relation to the drum 10 so that a small gap Y is formed between the two. Under the drum 10 is a curved cover plate 35 shrouding the drum and having a small downward extension 36, and the extensions 34 and 36 of the two plates form a chute leading into a funnel shaped member 37.

In the bulk of tobacco contained between the plate 33 and the carded drum 10 the shorts tend to fall, in a known manner, to the bottom of the container" and thus collect in the area of the gap Y. These shorts fall through the gap Y and into the funnel shaped member 37 beneath which is a block 38 provided with a vertical passage 39. The centre portion of this passage is shaped to receive a rotatable non-return valve 40 provided with two pockets 41. Beneath the valve is a manifold 42 which is open to the valve at its top. The shorts collect in the funnel shaped member 37 and are fed by the valve 40 into the manifold 42 in a manner more fully described in United States application Ser. No. 622,875.

Leading from the manifold 42 is a pipe 43 through which the shorts are carried pneumatically to a funnel shaped exit 44 (which is shown to the left of the drawing). The shorts are delivered from the funnel 44 into a reservoir 45 which is formed between a back wall 46, two end walls 47 (only one of which is shown in the drawing), and a driven conveyor band 48 which forms the base and one side of the reservoir. The band 48 passes around rollers 49, 50, 51 and 52, of which the roller 51 is driven by an infinitely variable speed drive (not shown). The band 48 is provided with serrated slats 53 which extend across the width of the band, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing.

The shorts received in the reservoir are fed by the band, which travels in the direction shown by the arrow, into the duct 26. The serrated slats 53 assist in the feed of the shorts. The speeds at which the band 48 travels, and therefore the rate at which the shorts are fed, is'controlled responsively to the detection of the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir in the following manner.

Pivoted to the end wall 47 of the reservoir is an arm 54 carrying a roller 55 which projects through a slot 56 in the end wall into the reservoir and rests on the top of the shorts contained therein, the level of the shorts being shown by a full line 57 in the drawing. As the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir increases (e.g. as they rise to the level shown by the broken line 58 in the drawing) the roller 55 rises with the shorts and moves about its pivot 59. Conversely as the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir decreases (e.g. as the level of the shorts falls to that shown by the broken line 60 in the drawing) the roller falls. The roller 55 thus acts as a detecting device to detect the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir, and the roller is operatively connected to the infinitely variable speed driving means which drives the roller 51 and hence the band 48. Movement of the roller 55 and the arm 54 act, in a known manner, to alter the rate at which the roller 51 is driven. As the roller 55 rises, i.e. as the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir increases, the rate at which the roller 51, and hence the band 48, is driven increases correspondingly. The rate at which the shorts are fed into the duct 26 also therefore increases correspondingly. Similarly when the roller 55 drops, the rate at which the roller 51 and the band 48 are driven decreases and the rate of feed of shorts into the duct 26 decreases correspondingly.

The shorts thus fed into the duct 26 are carried by the airstream into the duct 19 where they join the main flow of tobacco which travels round the suction roller 16 to be carried therewith into the tobacco filler stream.

The band 48 and the reservoir 45 extend in width (i.e. in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing) across two thirds of the duct 26 and the duct 19. The air pervious conveyor band on which the tobacco filler stream is formed travels in a direction from above the plane of the drawing to below the plane of the drawing so that tobacco received thereon at a position above the plane of the drawing lies closest to the air pervious conveyor band and the tobacco received ata position below the plane of the drawing lies furthest away from the conveyor band. The band 48 and the reservoir 45 are positioned so that the shorts fed from the reservoir are received on the air pervious conveyor band in such a way that further tobacco is received after the shorts. The arrangement is similar to that shown in FIGURE 4 of the specification of United States application Ser. No. 622,875. In the present case the band 48 and the reservoir 54 extend across approximately the first two thirds of the width of the duct 19 as considered in the direction of travel of the air pervious conveyor band.

The purpose of this arrangement is to direct the shorts such that they are concentrated in that part of the filler stream which will remain after excess tobacco has been trimmed therefrom by a trimming device (not shown) in a manner as described in United States application Ser. No. 622,875. The band 48 and the reservoir 45 are thus arranged to feed the shorts into a desired part of the flow of tobacco from which the filler stream is formed such that the shorts become concentrated in that part of the filler stream which remains after the trimming operation.

It will be appreciated that the apparatus described above is shown only by way of example and that many modifications and different arrangements could be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, different forms of detecting means could be used, such as for example light sources and photoelectric cells, capacitance detectors, and other known forms of detecting devices.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for producing a continuous tobacco filler 5 comprising means to meter tobacco from a supply thereof to produce a continuous flow of tobacco for forming a continuous tobacco filler from said flow, means to remove shorts continously from the tobacco supply and to feed the shorts so removed to a reservoir, detecting means to detect the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir, feeding means to feed shorts from the reservoir into the said continuous flow of tobacco at a position downstream of where the shorts were removed and downstream of where tobacco is metered from the supply to produce said continuous flow, and means operable to adjust the rate of feed of the shorts from the reservoir by the feeding means responsively to the operation of the said detecting means, so that when an increase in the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir is detected by the detecting means the rate of operation of the feeding means is correspondingly increased, and when a decrease in the amount of shorts contained in the reservoir is detected by the detecting means the rate of operation of the feeding means is correspondingly decreased.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising a duct through which air flows to feed therethrough tobacco from said supply, and comprising a further duct communicating with the first said duct and through which air flows to enter the first said duct, wherein the said reservoir comprises a conveyor band forming a wall of said reservoir and movable to carry shorts from the reservoir and discharge them into said further duct for conveyane into the first said duct, said conveyor band being driven by a variable speed drive means whose speed is controlled by said detecting means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,501,622 7/1924 Ruav 13121 XR 1,721,117 7/1929 Hopkins 13184 XR 2,162,443 6/ 1939 Muller. 2,467,248 4/ 1949 Arelt 1311 10 XR 2,260,178 11/1953 Rault 13184 2,672,871 3/1954 Slovic 131-21 3,030,966 4/1962 Lanore 131-84 3,089,497 5/1963 Molins et a1. 131-21 3,092,117 6/1963 Labbe 131-110 3,113,576 12/1963 Bell 131-21 3,189,034 6/1965 Molins 1311 10 X FOREIGN PATENTS 383,142 11/1932 Great Britain.

676,087 5/ 1939 Germany.

111,559 3/1962 Pakistan.

ALDRICH F. MEDBERY, Primary Examiner. SAMUEL KOREN, JOSEPH S. REICH, Examiners. 

